Managing change at bingham business college Essay

Managing change at bingham business college - Essay Example Having said that, Stacey (2011, p.27) cautions that â€Å"the particular explanation one adopts directly affects the particular account one gives of any phenomena, including those to which the concepts of strategy and organisational change apply†. Thus this interpretation is partial and not objective, which is not how business situations should be viewed. The correct business approach to problem solving is represented in the rational decision-making process described by Miller et al (1996): Figure 1: Rational Decision Making Model (Source: based on Miller et al, 1996, p.76) This appears to be the approach taken by Snook when devising his new system. However, what he perceives as a problem is not necessarily a problem. His issue is how the Central Records Office appears to those outside of the Office, with data security and the impact of anticipated increases in student numbers seemingly secondary to his primary impression of the Office as being unprofessional. He wants the Col lege to appear professional and the Office to appear the same as part of that. He makes several assumptions about the original Office set-up, including it is inefficient (â€Å"it must be, it’s a mess†) and that a fundamental restructuring is needed. He ignores evidence showing the Office has been operating at 120% capacity, using the original system, that he doesn’t like, and proceeds with his ideas without advising the Office staff of the potential for additional student enrolments or asking them for their views on how the Office might need to change to deal with this. At no point has he actually discussed his opinion of the Office with the staff, which might have averted the crisis that now exists. He even ignores the warning from his â€Å"expert† that the Head of Central Records would not be comfortable with the proposals, projecting his own preferences onto Fearne to justify his decision. Ignoring Roberts’ point, when it is made by someone wh o has been at the College for some time and therefore knows how things operate both formally and informally, is a major error of judgment on the part of Snook, who has only been in post for a matter of months. A Learning Organisation Perspective A learning organisation is one that â€Å"encourages and facilitates the learning and development of people at all levels of the organisation, values the learning and simultaneously transforms itself† (Mullins, 2010, p.827). Stacey (2010, p.99) looks at different approaches to strategy, stating that one belief is that â€Å"an organisation’s strategic development could be better understood as arising in processes of learning†. Organisations become what they are due to â€Å"the quality of their learning processes†, with organisational leaders required to â€Å"design learning processes and inspire effective learning† (ibid). Fearne would argue the learning experience for her and her team is one of how not t o manage change. Snook’s imposition of the change indicates he does not consider the College to be a learning organisation, nor does he consider the Office staff have any knowledge which could be useful to him in redesigning the Office systems. He also believes the staff do not need development, which could have happened had he involved the staff in the change process. Stacey (ibid) refers to Senge’